Category Archives: reviews

My Magical Career at Court: Living the Dream After My Nightmare Boss Fired Me from the Mages’ Guild!, Vol. 6

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By Shusui Hazuki and necomi. Released in Japan as “Black Madōgushi Guild o Tsuihō Sareta Watashi, Ōkyū Majutsushi to Shite Hirowareru: White na Kyūtei de, Shiawase na Shinseikatsu o Hajimemasu! ” by SQEX Novels. Released in North America by J-Novel Heart. Translated by Mari Koch.

It’s been more than a year since the last volume of this, the dangers of catching up. I was looking forward to more romcom shenanigans, but unfortunately, this is the serious, peril volume, and the romcom is saved for the very end. I also noticed that my last review talked about the villains all being cartoonishly evil and trying to destroy the Crown, which is true, but I’m starting to think that maybe it would be for the best if the Crown were destroyed. Michael has always been a bit of a dick, trying his damndest to get Noelle working at the palace even though that’s not what she wants. Here he seemingly tries to have her love interest killed (I don’t know if he was behind the kidnapping, but he was definitely behind the “he’s a traitor” rumors), and the 7th book promises a big confrontation, and hopefully the prince gets kicked in the nuts.

We pick up with the cliffhanger from the last volume: Luke has been kidnapped, and it turns out that he’s in the Holy Nation of Clares, which is run by the Church. Noelle and the others not only find that their rescue attempts are cut off, but also find he’s being slandered, so they are to assume he is Evil Presumed Dead. This does not sit well with Noelle, who ends up resigning fro her post and going to the Holy Nation to track him down. Fortunately, she has allies. Her old friend Nina is adventuring in the area, and there’s always the all-powerful Elf Princess Evangeline, and even her wyvern friend. Plus, y’know, she’s brilliant at nearly everything, be it cleaning a horribly polluted creek in one day or befriending the hidden savior of the nation. Unfortunately, Luke may really *be* Evil Presumed Dead…

We’ve been waiting for six volumes, so it’s nice that we finally get a mutual confession (yes, yes, OK, Luke is not really evil or dead, though his presence in this book is confined to the last part). Unfortunately, the series is not yet over, which means that we’ve got to put off them actually becoming a couple for even longer – especially since Michael is trying to make her his bodyguard/personal mage. But yeah, right now Noelle has a goal, and that goal is not “marry Luke”, it’s “become the greatest mage in the world”. I mean, the title of the series is My Magical Career. As for the rest of the book, it’s decent considering it’s a rescue book. We meet a drunk nun and a gambling-addicted nun, who provide most of the humor. And the savior of the Holy Nation is, frankly, adorbs, and I hope we see more of her.

What’s that, Lassie? Series? Caught up again? No new volume in sight? Ah well, back to waiting. Still, glad we got this.

The Beauty’s Blade: Mei Ren Jian

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By Feng Ren Zuo Shu, Xiao Tong Kong (Velinxi), idledee and Gravity Dusty. Released in China on the Jinjiang Literature City website. Released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. Translated by Yu. Adapted by Aysha U. Farah.

This is, I believe, the first baihe novel to be published in North America. From what I can gather, it wasn’t the most popular to be found (those ended up with another publisher who has not yet released them), but it had a small but devoted following. I can see why: the two leads are excellent, and the reason to read this. Watching the push-pull between the fiery, emotional, vengeance-driven Fu Wanqing and the cool, icy, and very emotionally masked Yu Shengyan is like watching a long, drawn out dance, and while it may be frustrating given how long they take to admit feeling for each other out loud, I found their relationship very satisfying. I wish I could say the same thing about the book. This may just fall under “not my genre”, but I ended up lost and uncaring in this tale of various sects with an axe to grind and a treasure map that turns out to connect to a past rather than a future.

Fu Wanqing is the heir to the House of Valor, the strongest of the five families that stand on the side of “good” in their community. She’s met one day by Yu Shengyan, the high priestess of the demonic guild, whose skills with a sword are apparently legendary. Fu Wanqing wants to duel her. Yu Shengyan has no interest in dueling, as once her sword is removed from its scabbard it has to kill. She’s there for a rare medicine that can heal her underling, who was permanently crippled in a sword battle… by Fu Wanqing. Fu Wanqing, who is also immediately attracted to the other woman, makes a deal: Stay by her side for three months, and she’ll let Yu Shengyan have the medicine. Of course, it’s not just them: the rest of the plot goes on around them, as a statue with a map is stolen, and everyone wants it.

There are some other subplots in this that are vaguely interesting, particularly the other “yuri” one involving the heir of one of the families and their burgeoning crush on, frankly, a cipher. The biggest issue, though, is there are simply too many characters to keep track of, and most of them are quite unlikable. To a degree this includes the two leads at times – sometimes you want to smack Fu Wanqing for being a smug asshole, or Yu Shengyan for closing herself off. That said, the times I was most invested in the book was watching the two of them flirt off to the side while the rest of the plot exploded around them. Seeing various family faction scream at each other and fight while these two feed each other orange slices can be hilarious. The other annoying factor for me was the writing itself. Chapter breaks feel entirely arbitrary, which I should have expected from a webnovel but it’s still annoying. Sometimes the POV shifts without a marker to tell us it’s now someone else. Another edit would have been good.

If you like baihe, I’d get this. I’d like to see more from this genre, and hopefully better.

I Want to Be a Saint, But I Can Only Use Attack Magic!, Vol. 2

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By Fuyu Aoki and Bodax. Released in Japan as “Seijo-sama ni Naritai no ni Kougeki Mahou shika Tsukaenain desu kedo!?” by GC Novels. Released in North America by Cross Infinite World. Translated by Kashi Kamitoma.

The first volume was also very funny, but this one really, really leans into broad as hell comedy, to the point where I felt it was overdoing it a bit. That’s for a very good reason, though, as frankly this world is very dark, and if it weren’t for Yuffie doing her Bocchi impersonation we’d genuinely worry for her. The school is being attacked by demons who think nothing of killing everyone in order to find Yuffie. Her burdock root buddy Catherine finds out her secret and is honestly terrified for a bit, as she points out that it’s scary seeing Yuffie casually breaking the laws of magic physics. And when the powers that be discuss what to do about her, their first thought is to expel her and basically put her under their control. Thankfully they choose not to do this, but there are very good reasons for Yuffie to continue to hide her powers beyond “because it’s funnier that way”.

After the events of the last book, Yuffie is trying to double down on learning how to improve her healing magic, though it’s slow going. Very slow going. She ends up getting some good pointers, though, when she meets up with Jack, who after the events of the last book wants her to train him in how she uses attack magic. Unfortunately her advice amounts to “use your magic till you run out of mana, over and over again, for nine years”. This actually does end up helping him, as he realizes that his determination was as nothing compared to HERS. And she’s going to need it, as they’re going to do a demonstration of healing magic, and have paired the best student (Erina) with the worst (Yuffie). Is she going to be able to be a saint when it takes her an hour to heal a small cut?

As with the first book, I could do without the “ha ha, it’s funny because she’s a predatory lesbian!” jokes. Other than that, though, this is a solid book, once again giving Yuffie a bit of character development. We meet both her parents, which helps to explain some of her apology tactics if not her introversion, and I get the feeling her mom being a former student council member will come up in a future book. And much as I spent most of the book annoyed at Erina, she does give us the book’s most heartwarming moment, when she says that Yuffie’s pathetic healing attempt did help prevent a man dying till Erina could get there and actually heal him. This book is still dark, though. Yuffie kills demons, and is not feeling upset about it at all. These seems to be Frieren-type demons, no sympathy here.

So this is a lot of fun, and I’m not too worried about Bocchi the Mage, but she has a long way to go before she’s accepted by anyone other than her own generation.